Well it looks as if Hurricane Irma has made landfall at the eastern tip of Cuba and is making its way up the northern coast. Currently Baracoa seems to be bearing the brunt of it which is a great shame because it was badly affected by Hurricane Matthew last year but Holguin, the entry point for many UK holiday makers is also going to be affected late tonight and tomorrow and all the resorts and airports on the northern coast are going to be affected, especially the popular holiday resorts on the Cayos.

Thomas Cook is getting a bad press at the moment for not keeping its customers informed, for example, there is no info on their website about their flight due to leave Manchester on Monday morning for Holguin. I'm finding it hard to imagine that Holguin Airport will be back to normal in less than 48hrs after a level 5 Hurricane has passed through. Thomson and First Choice seem to be more proactive at the moment and have been cancelling flights and informing clients of this.

That said, the Cuban authorities take a very cautious approach to hurricanes and if you have ever been to Cuba in the hurricane season and wondeed why your resort hotel wasn't full, it is because hotels and TO's are expected by the authorities to maintain spare capacity so that holidaymakers can be evacuated to hotels away from the path of any hurricane. The problem this time is that Irma is tracking through on a northeasterly path hugging the north coast where nearly all the popular tourist resorts are, which leaves them very little room for manoeuvre on this occasion.

In posting this, I'm not wanting to alarm people, just trying to collate some info that I hope might be useful. I have never been deterred from travelling to Cuba during the hurricane season and in fact have made most of my trips there during July and August. The only reason why I have not been out there at that time in recent years is that now that I am retired, I'm no longer tied to travelling out there during the most humid time of year. I prefer the fresher climate in either Spring or Autumn and I'm due to fly out 4 weeks on Monday from Manchester to Holguin with Thomas Cook and I'm not expecting to have to revise my plans to any great extent because as long as Holguin Airport is open I don't anticipate major problems in Santiago on the south coast where we will be staying for the bulk of our trip though we might have to review a planned sidetrip to Baracoa. Not because of any personal danger but because we are booked into a Casa Particulares and much will depend on whether and how much damage it has sustained and of course what Hurricane Jose does.